This invention relates to determining the position and orientation of a remote object with respect to a reference point; and, more particularly, to radiating an electromagnetic field from the reference point, detecting the field at the remote object and analyzing the detected field to determine the position and orientation of the remote object.
The use of orthogonal coils for generating and sensing magnetic fields is well known. For example, such apparatus has received wide attention in the area of mapping magnetic fields to provide a better understanding of their characteristics. If a magnetic field around generating coils can be very accurately mapped through use of sensing coils, it has also been perceived that it might be possible to determine the location of the sensing coils relative to the generating coils based on what is sensed. However, a problem associated with doing this is that there is more than one location and/or orientation within a usual magnetic dipole field that will provide the same characteristic sensing signals in a sensing coil. In order to use a magnetic field for this purpose, additional information must therefore be provided.
One approach to provide the additional information required for this purpose is to have the generating and sensing coils move with respect to each other, such as is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,644,825. The motion of the coils generates changes in the magnetic field, and the resulting signals then may be used to determine direction of the movement or the relative position of the generating and sensing coils. While such an approach removes some ambiguity about the position on the basis of the field sensed, its accuracy is dependent on the relative motion, and it cannot be used at all without the relative motion.
Another approach, that has been suggested, to provide the additional required information is to make the magnetic field rotate as taught in Kalmus, "A New Guiding and Tracking System," IRE Transactions on Aerospace and Navigational Electronics, March 1962, pages 7-10. To determine the distance between a generating and a sensing coil accurately, this approach requires that the relative orientation of the coils be maintained constant. It therefore cannot be used to determine both the relative translation and relative orientation of the generating and sensing coils.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,565 teaches a tracking system for continuously determining at the origin of a reference coordinate system the relative translation and orientation of a remote object. The tracking system includes radiating and sensing antenna arrays each having three orthogonally positioned loops. Properly controlled excitation of the radiating antenna array allows the instantaneous composite radiated electromagnetic field to be equivalent to that of a single loop antenna oriented in any desired direction. Further control of the excitation causes the radiated field to nutate about an axis denoted a pointing vector.
The tracking system is operated as a closed loop system with a computer controlling the radiated field orientation and interpreting the measurements made at the sensing antenna array. That is, an information feedback loop from the sensing antenna array to the radiating antenna array provides information for pointing the axis of the nutating field toward the sensing antenna array. Accordingly, the pointing vector gives the direction to the sensing antenna array from the radiating antenna array. The proper orientation of the pointing vector is necessary for computation of the orientation of the remote object. The signals detected at the sensing antenna include a nutation component. The nutating field produces a different nutation component in each of the three detected signals. The orientation of the sensing antenna array relative to the radiated signal is determined from the magnitudes of these nutation components.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,881 teaches a near-field non-tracking system for determining, at a remote object, the position of the remote object with respect to a reference coordinate system. The orientation of the remote object can be determined, at the remote object, with respect to the reference coordinate system by using an iterative computational scheme.
This is accomplished by applying electrical signals to each of three mutually orthogonal radiating antennas, the electrical signals being multiplexed with respect to each other and containing information characterizing the polarity and magnetic moment of the radiated electromagnetic fields. The radiated fields are detected and measured by three mutually orthogonal receiving antennas having a known relationship to the remote object, which produces nine parameters. These nine parameters, in combination with one known position or orientation parameter, are sufficient to determine the position and orientation parameters of the receiving antennas with respect to the position and orientation of the radiating antennas.
U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 954,126, filed Oct. 24, 1978, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRACKING OBJECTS, teaches a tracking system for: (a) determining at the origin of a first body coordinate reference frame the relative position and orientation of a second body and (b) determining at the origin of a second body coordinate reference frame the relative position and orientation of the first body. Each body of the tracking system includes at least two independently oriented stub dipoles for radiating and sensing electromagnetic fields. Properly controlled excitation of the radiating antenna allows the radiated field to nutate about an axis denoted a pointing vector.
The first body receives radiation transmitted from the second body and establishes the pointing angles to the second body with respect to the first body coordinate reference frame. The processing which determines the pointing angles is based on the fact that no modulation or nutation components exist in the radial direction between the two bodies. The field received by the first body can include information defining the second body's pointing angles to the first body with respect to the second body's coordinate reference frame and the relative roll about their mutually aligned pointing axes. This information is sufficient for determining the orientation of the first body relative to the second.
The above process is then repeated with the second body receiving radiation transmitted from the first body. Further, information can be transmitted from the first body to the second body which establishes a vector from the second body to a third body, thus defining the location of the third body at the second body.
While the art of determining the position and orientation of remote objects is a well developed one, there still remains a need to determine the orientation of a remote object, at that remote object, with respect to a source reference coordinate frame, with increased speed, in a noniterative computational manner, in the context of a near field nontracking position and orientation determining system. Further, and in the same context, there is a need for a reduction in the complexity and cost of these systems.